[Tfug] Apple Mac OS X: tool of Godless Darwinists and Communist / TROLL ALERT?

[Bexley Hall]

Hi, Bowie,

> >On a truly serious note, why do you think people become
> >"zealots"?  (this is not a rhetorical question)  If you
> >*truly* "believe" (whatever you happen to believe), then
> >why care about what others "believe"?  (let's please avoid
> >the cop-out replies...)
> 
> This also applies to athiesm, oddly enough. They're

Of course!  Zealotry applies to *any* belief system -- even
one in which you BELIEVE in an non-entity.

> just zealots of a different religion. I should know, I used
> to be one. (An athiest, that is..not a zealot.)..I was
> actually raised in an athiest home. I only became a
> Christian later in life, in my early 30's. Anyway, back
> to the meat:
> 
> If I were a true athiest, why the hell would I care if
> "In God We Trust" is printed on my money? It could

Exactly.  "In God We Trust" is best followed by "everyone else
pays CASH!"

> just as easilly say "All Hail Cthulu". I could
> care less what it says, since I don't believe in either
> one. As an athiest, to me, they are both powerless
> statements.
> 
> In my experience, the more noise an athiest makes, the more
> reluctant they are to truly examine their own beliefs.

Again, it boils down to beliefs.  We take many things for
granted each day (i.e., we have unquestioning belief in
them!).  Many of those things, if we sat down and thought about
them *seriously*, we would begin to question WHY we believe
in them.

E.g., we believe that things fall *down* (gravity).  Because
they *seem* to do so.  And, because the science teacher told
us all about that when we were in grade school.  Yet, science
is nothing if not in a constant state of flux.  How do we
know someone won't rewrite the rules later and say "gravity
makes things fall DOWN *except* when..."?

Personally, I have a hard time dealing with the concept of
an infinite universe.  But, it is much easier for me to deal
with *that* than to try to imagine a *finite* universe -- and
then wonder how big the thing *containing* it is!

But, I think these are healthy rationalizations.  They don't
force me to go around trying to peddle my belief system.
If there are "turtles all the way down", then my response is
a big <shrug>.  And, if these are later proven to actually
be *elephants*, yet another <shrug>

> It's just too uncomfortable for them to drill down. Any
> intro-level philosophy course is going to teach you that a
> belief that God exists is no more rationally or logically
> justifyable than a belief that God *doesn't* exist. If
> you're goal is to be purely rational about it, the only
> valid stance is agnosticism---The agnostic knows enough to
> know that he *can't* know.

Yes. "The only winning move is not to play".